Breweries

Hawkshead Brewery

In the early noughties, when Hawkshead Brewery began life a barn at the head of Esthwaite Water, just outside the village of Hawkshead. The barn quickly became too small for the blossoming operation. In 2006, Hawkshead upped sticks and sailed across Windermere to Staveley, at the foot of the Kentmere Valley.

Hawkshead Brewery is tailor-made by Moeschle (UK) Ltd, and includes a beautiful glass-fronted taproom, The Beer Hall, which opens seven days a week and is a showcase for Hawkshead beers in cask, keg and bottle.

Having run its existing brewery at capacity for some time, the focus has necessarily been on meeting demand for its popular core range of beers. As well as supporting Hawkshead’s continuing growth, the new brewery will free up Staveley’s 20-barrel brew kit for smaller runs of experimental styles and limited edition beers.

The brewery can now produce 20 barrels per brew. With five brewers, this works out at 120 barrels a week.

As part of a major project, German manufacturer Krones has been contracted to build a state-of-the-art new brewery, including a 40 barrel (6,500 litre) rapid-batch brewhouse, capable of multiple brews per day, on a site near the existing brewery.